I Incorporated Propel Into My Hydration Routine For A Month: Here’s What I Learned

I’ll be honest: My hydration habits need an overhaul. While I workout almost every day, I rarely remember to drink enough water. This leaves me depleted, trying to remedy cracked lips and fending off a headache halfway through my workouts. Some of my friends call me “The Thirst-Buster” because I always seem to be gulping down beverages in an effort to get my fluid levels back on track.

Your body loses more than just water when you sweat. You’re also losing electrolytes, such as sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. When hydrating, you want to replace the fluids and electrolytes you’ve lost. Staying hydrated supports regulation of body temperature, exercise performance, and mood, while a failure to do so can lead to fatigue, lower alertness, and a drop in mood.

The ultimate goal: Formulate a sustainable hydration strategy for myself.

I’ve known for a while that I need to employ better hydration habits, but I haven’t been able to make anything stick. This is partially because I’m always on the go, but also because I’ve always sought out sugar-free drinks, which can be difficult find. So when I was offered to do a month-long trial of Propel Fitness Water—a zero-sugar enhanced, flavored water crafted with support from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute to replenish electrolytes that get lost through sweat—I decided this would be my opportunity to finally get serious. The ultimate goal: Formulate a sustainable hydration strategy for myself, using a combination of water and Propel. Did I accomplish this? Well, here’s my training diary.

Days 1 Through 7

I completed four 3-to-4-mile runs the week following Memorial Day to help train for a race in late August. Each was about three to four miles, and I quickly found that carrying Propel Powder Packets with me to splash in my water bottle was an efficient way to replace the electrolytes I was losing—especially since they’re so easily portable.

I then turned to the 1-liter Propel Fitness bottle. Shout-out to the kiwi-strawberry flavor, which was so good I found myself checking the label multiple times to make sure it didn’t have any sugar. Toward the end of the week, though, I sprained my ankle while running on an eight-mile stretch of dirt and gravel.

Propel Fitness Water – 1L Bottle

Propel Fitness Water – 1L Bottle

Days 8-14

With my ankle healing, I had to cool it on the cardio. Instead, I focused on upper-body weightlifting mixed in with some recovery-minded ankle-mobility exercises. Weight sessions rarely leave me feeling as parched as I do after cardio, but I’ve long suspected that’s just me misreading my body. As I made a concerted effort to drink water before my workouts and Propel during them, I noticed my workouts in the gym improving.

Days 15-21

My workouts weren’t meticulously planned this week. I took a trip to my hometown of Miami for a much-needed vacation, where I prioritized getting movement every day over specific workouts. I did a mix of intervals on the rower, took some yoga classes, and, since it’s Miami, I swam every day. I switched back to the Propel powder packets so I could easily bring them to the gym, the beach, and on the airplane. Drinking more helped me avoid the usual brain-fog and mid-day crash that I expect on vacation.

Days 22-28

Though I focused on rowing this week, I slipped up a bit on my hydration routine. I continued drinking Propel during my workouts, but I stopped hydrating before exercising. There was a noticeable difference: My mood was a bit wonky and I quickly got fatigued. This wasn’t surprising; rowing makes me sweat a bunch, so I should have known this was not the time to take shortcuts.

Propel Fitness Water – Powder Packets

Propel Fitness Water – Powder Packets

Days 28-35

With my ankle back to 100 percent and a lesson learned after failing to hydrate properly, I finished my Propel experiment off with my most intense week to date. I took an exercise class composed of prowler pushes, bungee cord rope exercises, and burpees. I completed several three-mile walks and a couple stationary bike rides, plus a barre workout class. With this increase in activity, plus a rise in temperature where I live, I upped my Propel intake. It was fun getting to try out all of the different flavors throughout the month, finally landing on Kiwi Strawberry and Raspberry Lemonade as my favorites.

Final Thoughts

Using Propel Fitness Water in tandem with regular water ended up being the perfect hydration combination for my lifestyle. That’s not to say that Propel is a miracle drink, but that it really worked for me as part of an overall push for better hydration. The week I lapsed back into my bad hydration habits was enough to remind me that this combo of Propel and regular water is something I don’t want to abandon.

Rozalynn S Frazier is an award-winning, multimedia journalist, and certified personal trainer living in New York City. She has created content for SELF, Health, Essence, Runner’s World, Money, Reebok, Livestrong, and others.